Teenage Tourettes Camp

About the Show

About the Show

Teenage Tourette’s Camp follows five British teenagers with Tourette’s Syndrome as they spend a week in a unique summer camp where they are allowed to swear, behave obsessively, act compulsively and enjoy every minute of it.

The group are the first British children to take part in the week-long program for those with the medical condition. Characteristics of this condition include chronic muscular and vocal tics, which can be socially stigmatising for sufferers. But these aren’t simply youngsters who swear a lot (though some of them do) and they are certainly not mentally ill – all they want is to do the things other teenagers do.

The camp, based near Chicago, offers children the chance take part in all the activities that would take place at a typical summer camp without having to suppress their behaviour. At Teenage Tourette’s Camp there’s only one rule for the thirty children taking part – to be themselves.
Set against a background of activities designed to challenge their fears, and where they are encouraged to open up about their experiences of living life with Tourette’s, there are the usual teen romances, tantrums, and friendships made and broken.

The difference is that these kids are in their own way extraordinary and this will be the first time they’ve spent with youngsters who are the same as them.